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The Myth: The Passport Service ‘banned’ a 5 year old girl’s passport photo because her shoulders were showing, and it might offend Muslims.

The Truth: There is no such rule against shoulders in passport photos. This was a mistake made by the cashier at the Post Office.

Here is a balanced report from The Metro, a newspaper which due to its free distribution, has less interest in pandering to an audience of paranoid racists (despite being a sister publication of the Daily Mail):

The Post Office and the Passport Office have both denied that they have any policy of rejecting passport photos featuring bare arms, after a five year old girl’s mother claimed that she was told her daughter’s picture would be rejected for fear of offending Muslims.

Jane Edwards says that she was told by a post office clerk that the photo of her daughter Hannah would probably be rejected, because she was wearing a sleeveless dress that exposed her shoulders, which she said might not be acceptable in a Muslim country.

Mrs Edwards says she was forced to spend two hours getting new photos taken and forms signed.
However, the Passport Office said that they had no such policy: ‘This picture should have been absolutely fine,’ a spokesman said.

And the Post Office also denied that their guidelines ruled out sleeveless tops.

‘Our offices have a Passport Office template which says what the photograph should and shouldn’t be,’ said a spokesman.
‘Bare shoulders don’t come into that at all. All we can do is apologise to Mrs Edwards. It was clearly a mistake made by the clerk. We will take it up with that particular office.’

…and here is a response from the same story:

“It is absolutely ridiculous that UK Muslims in postal shops believe that exposing shoulders on a young girl equates to immodesty and moral decay.